


What is that peculiar sound in your chest?

by baichan



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Heartbeats, Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-24 05:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/935830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baichan/pseuds/baichan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He remembers having a heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What is that peculiar sound in your chest?

Jack is in the Warren, enjoying the flowers and ferns and ( _not his ice ones, they don't belong in a place that's full of_ ) eternal spring. He thinks it's funny that a place could be eternally spring.

Where is winter with its falling blossoms of snow and ferns of frost and planes of ice? Where is fall with leaves he turns a dazzling iridescent red and the crops, ripe and ready to harvest? Where is summer with its blistering heat and end of school year and cool pools made for swimming ( _when not skating_ )?

Anywhere but the Warren as he learns that his ice and frost and snow hold no power there. It's actually _nice._

Nice to touch the flowers and watch them preen under the affection instead of shivering and wilting under winter's attention. He discovers the softness of grass, the whiteness of new eggs, and the wonderful smell of flowers.

The strangest thing he discovers in spring, a place he's never been welcomed before, is the soft _thump._

 _What is that?_ He wonders as the wind carries him from corner to corner in his search.

It's constant and quiet so that sometimes he forgets its there but then he'll remember the silence of winter and migrated birds and hibernating mammals, and then it will just be in his ear.

_Thumpthumpthump-_

He's not sure what it is so he waits for Bunny, ( _who gladly let's him stay when the discovery of his lack of ice is made known_ ) in the white lilies that are larger and wilder than any lillies he's known, why even the tiger lillies he's seen were quite tame.

Bunny comes holding a basket ( _an easter basket_ ) and Jack is kind enough to wait until he sets it down when he tackles Bunny like he jumps into snowdrifts and the Wind's welcome embrace.

He _hugs_ Bunny like he hasn't hugged him before, nose full of warm fur and the overpowering smell of eggs and chocolates and flowers. It's warm, warmer than anything he's ever felt and when he turns his head so his ear is pressed to lovely warm grey fur he hears it.

It's much louder than before but he hears it, the thump-thumping, except maybe its more of a lub-dub.

"What is that?" He asks.

Bunny seems torn between affectionate amusement and annoyance.

"What's what?" He asks as he wraps his furry arms around the cold child.

Jack snuggles deeper into the hug, closer to the thump-lub-dub-thump.

"The thumping sound, the one like a rabbits foot." He asks grinning and trying to look up at green eyes.

Bunny's ears twitch.

"I don't hear anything."

Jack's smile twists into a frown.

Removing himself from the hug Jack places a cold hand on Bunny's chest.

"It's there..."

Bunny's ears lower in confusion, then raise.

"That's just my heart." He says, "See..."

Bunny places a large paw over Jack's chest and stills. Then moves it over to the right.

Jack meanwhile is trying to think. A heart, he's heard people speak of hearts. They walk in the snow with mittens and holding hands. They kiss with chapped lips and their nipped noses touch.

_'I love you with all my heart'_

He had always wondered.

"That's, that's, when you love someone right?"

He grins, glad to understand the concept.

Bunny shakes his head and presses harder with his paw.

"No... It's a heart and a heartbeat. It's a sign of life."

This disappoints Jack because while he can love and love with all his heart he can't live.

( _Now that he thinks about it he can remember the feeling of having a beating heart and suddenly he feels very cold and empty_ )

Stepping away from Bunny, Jack rubs his chest.

"I- I- don't, no- no."

Bunny approaches slowly and gathers Jack in his arms. Glittering diamond tears of ice roll down his pale cheeks.

Bunny's heartbeat is a comfort and he calms, sniffling.

"I remember having a heart." He says.


End file.
